How do you feel about your microwave oven? Is it a useful kitchen appliance, a dinosaur you rarely use, or an evil tool of Food Destruction? I know many homesteaders eschew this appliance as one of the more wasteful uses of energy, but in reality I think it's more of an energy trade-off, since the energy you use microwaving means some other energy-using appliance does not get used. But it seems to make some people feel like this:
When I was remodeling my kitchen last year, I had a designer tell me that more and more people are opting not to have microwave ovens installed in their homes, because they just don't use them. And I do know there are still people out there who feel they're not entirely safe. But for me, the microwave is not so much used as an oven, but rather as a kitchen tool.
It's 7 a.m. as I write this, for instance, and I just used my microwave to heat up the coffee mug I then poured my hot coffee into. I also used it to heat the actual water for my coffee, too (a filled, one-quart Mason Jar, heated on high for 5 minutes will bring water to a near-boil, much faster than your tea kettle can. You can then pour it into your cafe-press for coffee, or into a mug for tea).
I also use the microwave to warm up plates regularly. Heating them for 30 seconds in the microwave before pouring or plating, and your food and beverages will stay much warmer, for longer. I also use it regularly to soften or melt butter when I'm baking.
As far as cooking goes, I suppose I don't do any actual cooking in the microwave, although all three of my kids do. I just don't care for the slightly dried-out texture and flavor that comes when a significant portion of the food's stored water is heated and drawn out of it, which is of course how microwaves cook. Plus I'm relatively certain that, with those water molecules goes at least some of the vitamins and nutrition. But I do use it to re-heat leftovers, wrapping everything in a towel or wax paper, and being very careful not to overcook.
Which brings up an important point: There is no worse smell in the kitchen than that of over-microwaved food, like spaghetti sauce or -- the worst -- popcorn. It makes the house smell like the break room of most offices. Blech. So if that's the reason you're tossing your microwave, I totally understand. But, for me, it still earns enough of its keep for me to keep one in the kitchen for the foreseeable future.
So if you could buy bread in the supermarket that would never get moldy, would you? There was an interesting article I read today about a Texas company that's developed a special commercial microwave oven that zaps all the mold spores out of manufactured bread. The link to it is below.
The upside to using the new technology is that the bread maker could actually use less preservatives -- and less chemicals that are put into the bread to mask the flavor of the preservatives. (I had no idea that some of the wacky ingredients in store-bought bread are actually things to make sure I don't taste the apparently yucky-tasting preservatives, did you?)
The downside is that you're eating microwaved bread, which has no mold spores whatsoever. Zip. Nada. While I'm not sure eating mold spores provides anything of use to our bodies, I can't say for sure that it doesn't. Who knows, it's possible mold spores confer some immunity or resistance to some types of food poisoning, or even some diseases. Which is why I hope the bread manufacturers do not rush pell-mell into buying into this new technology, seeing big dollar signs in being able to keep bread on the supermarket shelves for a couple of months instead of a couple of days.
Besides, keeping bread refrigerated reduces mold spoilage by about 90 percent, anyway. Keeping it in the freezer makes it last even longer.
And nothing, but nothing we've invented yet will stop the opposite problem from happening, which is bread going stale enough to cause injury, as anyone who has ever been hit in the head with a stale dinner roll can tell you.
http://www.sanluisobispo.com/2013/01/08/2349131/texas-company-microwave-keeps.html
